(The Mastersinger of Nuremberg), by Richard Wagner, combines profound emotion and great comedy to tell the tale of a young knight and his struggle to become a Mastersinger. Wagner'sonly comedy, for which he wrote both the words and the music, offers an extraordinarily adept coupling of libretto and musical score.

This Dover edition is a reprint of an authoritative and accessible German score from theturn of the twentieth century. It contains...